During September through December 1994 I completed an internship with Christmas in October, an organization that uses volunteers and donated cash and supplies to paint and repair the homes of low-income elderly and/or handicapped homeowners in New Orleans. CIO is a program of the Preservation Resource Center of New Orleans, a historic preservation organization dedicated to promoting and preserving the architecture and neighborhoods of New Orleans. I performed a variety of jobs for Christmas in October including assisting with the daily operation of the office and warehouse, working on promotion and public relations, shooting photographs, and writing a plan for CIO's 1995 promotional campaign. This report discusses my experiences while I worked with the CIO staff and volunteers, discusses some managerial problems that I encountered and makes recommendations for their improvement. I also discuss my short and long-term contributions to the organization.

The purpose of this dissertation is to identify an optimum ratio of police officers to city residents for the purpose of reducing year-to-year crime rates in cities with populations between 25,000 and 999,999. Current research in this area focuses on the impact of the number of police officers on overall crime rates. However, that body of research does not distinguish the impacts found in minimally-staffed, moderately-staffed, and highly-staffed agencies. By examining each of these three groups separately, a statistically significant relationship was determined to exist between per capita staffing levels and short-term property crime reduction for agencies with 1.50 to 2.75 police officers per 1,000 residents. No such relationship existed for agencies with fewer than 1.50 officers or greater than 2.75 officers per 1,000 residents. There was no identifiable relationship between staffing levels and violent crime categories. As a result of this finding, an optimum staffing range has been identified for local law enforcement agencies seeking to make immediate, short-term impacts on property crime.

Project PANOPTES (http://www.projectranoptes.org) is aimed at establishing a collaboration between professional astronomers, citizen scientists and schools to discover a large number of exoplanets with the transit technique. We have developed digital camera based imaging units to cover large parts of the sky and look for exoplanet transits. Each unit costs approximately $5000 USD and runs automatically every night. By using low-cost, commercial digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) cameras, we have developed a uniquely cost-efficient system for wide field astronomical imaging, offering approximately two orders of magnitude better etendue per unit of cost than professional wide-field surveys. Both science and outreach, our vision is to have thousands of these units built by schools and citizen scientists gathering data, making this project the most productive exoplanet discovery machine in the world.

Citizen proposal is one of many participation governance arrangements introduced the last few decades in Sweden in order to improve communication between local government institutions and citizens. In 2002 citizen proposal was introduced by the state, thus making it possible for the municipalities to allow citizens and other inhabitants to come up with proposals to the elected. In 2007 the law was revised and now gave the municipalities opportunity to delegate decision-making related to citizen proposals to the committees [nämnder/styrelser]. This study examines the implementation of citizen proposals in Kumla municipality 2002-2019. First analysing the arguments raised by the municipality to implement citizen proposal in Kumla, it then proceeds to show how it was implemented before and after the revision of the law that gave opportunity to delegate decision-making to the committees and what consequences it had on the content of the decisions. The study ends by showing how and why Kumla municipality decided to repeal the citizen proposal in favour of another kind of citizen participation.

Magister Commercii (Information Management) - MCom(IM) / The purpose of the research case study was to assess the current state of alignment of business processes to Provincial Strategic Goals (PSGs) and services in the Provincial Government and to identify the way to align business processes to PSGs and services for an effective e-government implementation. Existing literatures were reviewed in order to identify relevant models to achieve the purpose of the research case study. An empirical research case study and comparative approach were used in order to identify suitable models, by means of strengths and weaknesses of the identified models and discussed. A qualitative research design and methodology was applied while assessing existing models from various literatures. A model to identify the current state of business processes was identified by the researcher and tested to assess the current state of business processes in the Provincial Government in question. There was no existing model to assess the alignment of business processes to Provincial Strategic Goals and services. Alignment elements that were cited by various literatures were used by the researcher to design and propose a Business Process Alignment Model (BPAM). The BPAM was tested and accepted by the Provincial Government where the study was conducted. The research case study predominantly used a qualitative research design and method. The quantitative illustrative approach was applied only to validate the proposed model that was designed by the researcher. A questionnaire was used to conduct interviews with research participants that were selected within the Provincial Government in question. It should further be noted that a quantitative approach was used to illustrate some findings that were analysed by the researcher. Results confirmed that the current state of business processes within the Provincial Government in question was still at level two (repeatable state). Yet the alignment of business processes to Provincial Strategic Goals and services did not exist; this alignment was assessed using the proposed BPAM which was designed by the researcher during this research case study. The effectiveness of e-government services is dependent on proper alignment of business processes and the maturity level of business processes across the organisation. Without proper alignment of business processes, it is a challenge for the public sector organisations to realise effective e-government implementation, not excluding other factors that have been identified by other literatures. This research case study will contribute to the current body of knowledge regarding effective e-government implementation, particularly in the public sector at Provincial level. Public sector organisations in South Africa could leverage on this work to address issues associated with business process alignment.

La explotación de la Amazonía se sostiene bajo los discursos de la civilización y colonización. Para ello, el aparato ideológico racista construye una imagen negativa de los aborígenes amazónicos. En este artículo, se estudia el discurso del expresidente Alan García como ejemplo de los discursos políticos antiamazónicos. Se demuestra que su discurso está basado en dos creencias discriminatorias: 1) Entre dos clases de ciudadanos, los amazónicos son ciudadanos de segunda clase y 2) El crecimiento económico es obstaculizado por grupos primitivos como los amazónicos. Para ello, desde el análisis crítico del discurso, se examinan las estrategias léxicas y discursivas presentes en un texto del citado mandatario. Finalmente, se concluye que el discurso de Alan García es una manifestación de una práctica social que reproduce discriminación en el país. / The exploitation of the Amazon is based on civilization and colonization discourses. For this, the racist ideological apparatus constructs a negative image of the Amazonian aborigines. In this paper, the speech of the former President Alan García is studied as an example of antiamazonic political discourses. It showed that his discourse is related to two discriminatory beliefs: 1) Between two classes of citizens, the Amazonians are second-class citizens, and 2) Economic growth is hindered by primitive groups such as the Amazonian. Therefore, from the Critical Discourse Analysis, the lexical and discursive strategies are examined. Finally, it is concluded that his speech is a manifestation of a social practice that reproduces discrimination in the country. / Revisión por pares

As social media platforms and the internet have become an integral part of our civic and political lives, many questions about how to approach digital politics and civic engagement have emerged in the past few years. This project attempts to address some of those questions, specifically how we may think about civic education in the digital age. I begin with the premise that in the digital age, education for democracy must focus on its epistemic aspect. While proponents of aggregative forms of democracy consider vote to be the main form of citizen participation, forms of epistemic democracy such as deliberative democracy seek to contribute to social knowledge through communication amongst citizens, civil society, market players and state institutions. I initially ground my inquiry within the American context by highlighting the participatory character of the American democratic ethos. For this, I evoke John Dewey’s view of democracy as involving collective inquiry that allows both individual growth and the enrichment of collective life. Then, by examining Jürgen Habermas’ deliberative and Chantal Mouffe’s agonistic models of democracy against the backdrop of increasing digital mediation of civic and political discourse, I problematize democratic subjectivity in the digital age and suggest using Etienne Balibar’s notion of transindividuality, which he develops from 17th century philosopher Baruch Spinoza. While Habermas demonstrates that certain communication conditions are necessary for legitimate political action, Mouffe reminds us that taking into account the importance of collective affective drives can help us take seriously the plurality of our contemporary democracies. However, I argue that in the digital age the strengths of these two approaches must be adapted to the evolving materiality of the environment in which people’s lived experience takes place rather than merely kept for instances of communication that occur within state institutions. For this, Balibar’s suggestion to think of the process of freedom of speech as a public good allows us to ground discourse in the material context in which it is produced and maintained, and provides a generative way of thinking of the role of education in our times.

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg; in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Public and Development Management 6 April 2017 / Since the inception of the democratic era in South Africa, citizen engagement has been a contentious issue for the local government sphere. In hardly a decade of democracy, cracks began to manifest on the newly-ushered system of public participation in the country, which saw communities embarking on various acts of protests around the country. Sadly, the ugly actions of dissatisfaction by the citizenry have been the order of the day since the early days of democracy, and some have been labelled it ‘a cry for attention by the disgruntled citizens’. As evidence of the disconnection in the local discourse, the aforesaid factor was regarded as a starting point in this research. As such, numbers of, and various reasons for the violent protests were examined thoroughly to establish the truth behind same. Public conversations and discussions, albeit informal, were held wherever possible, and all these pointed to the crisis of democracy in the local government. The research explored the notion of meaningful citizen engagement as a panacea for alleviating service delivery backlogs in the local government. To avoid challenges of the cause-effect scenario in analysing the processes, measurements of meaningful citizen engagement in the local government, named ‘condition’, were developed in this research. Focusing on five different categories of municipalities, fifteen officials and ten councillors were interviewed using in-depth, semi-structured interviews. Further to that, two focus group discussions were held with ten community members and eight ward committee members each, using unstructured interview questions as focal themes. Apart from the interviews, four non-participant observations (IDP/Budget meetings) were conducted in order to get a sense of the current engagement processes. Furthermore, various public documents, both internal and external of the organisations, were analysed and utilised as part of the literature review. Data from the above sets of sources were explored and analysed using the basic interpretive qualitative design and phenomenological methods to make meaning of same. The research findings suggested that current mechanisms of engagement lacked depth, and are limited in terms of opening meaningful engagement spaces for the citizens. These findings pointed to the dire need to move away from the normal, passive public participation towards the engaging, deliberative notions wherein the citizens would have opportunities to influence the final outcomes of planning and budgeting. / MT2017

The practice of selling passports through Citizenship by Investment (CBI) programmes is gaining more attraction and legitimacy in light of increasingly stricter immigration policies. Instead of simply weighing the pro and contra points of CBI, this thesis aims to understand CBI as a consequence of neoliberalism and analyses the correlation between so called ‘passport power’ and wealth, whereby the former is determined by rankings and the latter is represented in terms of the gross domestic product (GDP). Hence, a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods is used to firstly, examine the strength of correlation, and secondly, supported by Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory, discuss how CBI is understood and debated in the context of today’s governed communities. The CBI arises out of a discursive struggle between citizenship and class, and exacerbates preexisting global inequalities. Furthermore, it challenges the normative foundations of citizenship and its connection to the nation state. On the one hand CBI contests the sedimented discourse of the modern passport system (and by extension the notions of citizenship), on the other hand capitalist negative individualism corrupts/distorts the initially egalitarian, utopian vision of what it means to be a citizen of the world.

Orientador: Célia Maria Retz Godoy dos Santos / Banca: Regina Célia Baptista Belluzzo / Banca: Sonia Aparecida Cabestré / Resumo: A comunicação mediada por dispositivos tecnológicos promove significativas alterações na ação e experiência democrática. Dentre as diversas mudanças incorporadas ao cotidiano, encontram-se as novas exigências da dimensão informativa dos poderes públicos via rede digital, que inclui a comunicação pública. O objetivo deste estudo foi identificar os pressupostos teóricos e práticos da Comunicação Pública e as relações de interferência da comunicação reticular neste processo, com vistas a refletir sobre o papel e a responsabilidade dos portais dos governos estaduais, na qualidade da relação e diálogo entre o estado e o cidadão. Como metodologia, após a revisão bibliográfica dos eixos temáticos - Comunicação Pública e Comunicação Reticular - observou-se uma amostra de portais dos poderes executivos em cinco regiões do Brasil, no sentido de perceber o tipo de informação veiculada, o estabelecimento de ambientes interativos, a possibilidade de transações concretas entre governo e cidadãos nestes canais, a integração dos serviços, os níveis de informação disponibilizados e a análise de conteúdo de algumas seções não permanentes. Como resultado constatou-se que a comunicação pública presente nos portais é pouco empregada como instrumento de ampliação da experiência cidadã. O que se encontra são oferecimento de informações de caráter institucional e de prestação de serviços, já que não existem espaços dialógicos para efetiva participação do usuário, nos portais observados. / Abstract: Communication mediated by technological devices promotes significant changes in democratic action and experience. Among the various changes incorporated into daily life are the new requirements of the informational dimension of public powers via digital network, which includes public communication. The objective of this study was to identify the theoretical and practical assumptions of Public Communication and the interference relations of the reticular communication in this process, with a view to reflect on the role and responsibility of the portals of the state governments, in the quality of the relationship and dialogue between the state and the citizen. As a methodology, following a bibliographic review of the thematic axes - Public Communication and Reticular Communication - a sample of portals of executive powers was observed in five regions of Brazil, in order to perceive the type of information conveyed, the establishment of interactive environments, the possibility of concrete transactions between government and citizens in these channels, the integration of services, the levels of information made available and the content analysis of some non-permanent sections. As a result, it was observed that the public communication present in the portals is little used as an instrument for expanding citizen experience. What is found is the provision of information of an institutional nature and of service rendering, since there are no dialog spaces for effective user particip... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre